As is well known and understood, many devices have been described to be worn by a swimmer and to be inflatable by a compressed pressed gas cartridge of the swimmer were to encour in the water. As is also well known and understood, similar such devices have been described for use by a person who falls from a rowboat or canoe, for example. A myriad of devices have been described in the patent arts--many of them being of a fairly complex configuration and operation or bulky and unattractive design, which mitigates against their use on a production scale and precludes broad consumer interest. A need therefore exists for a construction which is simple in design and operation, and hence less likely to malfunction and much easier to deploy in use.
Additionally, analysis has shown that when these prior art preservers are designed in the nature of a "belt", yet another problem arises in that their designs either upend the user in the water, or cause such imbalance as to seriously incapacitate the swimmer. Even where this was not the situation, such prior conceived designs--even where they satisfactorily perform to stabilize the wearer in the water--exhibited serious limitations in not allowing the user to swim to safety. More specifically, such prior art constructions seem to be attached to the body in such a way that when the wearer attempted to assume a horizontal position in the water, he or she was prevented from swimming away because of the encumbering effect of the floatation device described.